THE COLLEGES / FERNANDO DOMINGUEZ : As a Sporting Gesture, Give It the Old Area College Try

So we hear there’s room for one more New Year’s resolution on your list.

Allow us, then, to make this suggestion:

Attend a sporting event at a local college in 1996.

If you are fed up with money-hungry, egotistical and obnoxious professional athletes who work for equally greedy, uncaring team owners with no loyalty to fans or cities, then you ought to consider the idea.

In this dark age of professionalism, college sports still retain some purity and they still possess a touch of innocence.

Yes, there are rotten apples in college athletics. They have fallen off carts at many distinguished schools just as others probably will in the future. But, for the most part, the integrity of college sports remains relatively strong while that of pro teams and leagues continues to plummet.

Besides, the local colleges we are suggesting you check out are small and generally don’t become embroiled in the serious types of problems that sometimes afflict more-prominent schools. And their sports programs have much to offer.

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For starters, there’s sheer entertainment at bargain prices, something families could use these days. Tickets to games are relatively inexpensive (often free) and they don’t gouge you on the concessions, either. Parking is usually free.

Most schools, particularly junior colleges, operate on shoestring athletic budgets and they are frail shoestrings at that. They need and deserve every dime they get.

But if you don’t want to hear about the financial woes of the schools, then consider the caliber of competition you’ll see.

In the past three seasons, for instance, Valley has been a football power. The Monarchs were top-ranked in one national junior college poll for several weeks this season and finished 10-1 for the second consecutive year.

At Ventura, the men’s basketball team is off to a 14-0 start and looking to defend its state championship. The Pirates advanced to the state final eight the past four seasons and finished second in 1993 and ’94 before winning the title last March.

A few weeks ago, the Cal Lutheran women’s volleyball team reached the NCAA Division III national finals.

These are not isolated cases.

There are many exceptional programs at local colleges.

From men’s volleyball at Pierce and Northridge to women’s basketball and men’s water polo at Ventura, from football and wrestling at Moorpark to softball at Antelope Valley and Northridge and baseball nearly everywhere, the talent is outstanding.

Yet, with the exception of Ventura men’s basketball games, where people consistently pack the gym, most local college teams play in virtual solitude. Everyone in the bleachers seems to arrive in the same taxi.

That lack of fan support has become more and more noticeable at various L.A. pro games but several factors have contributed to that apathy.

Among the reasons, of course, are ridiculously high ticket prices, spoiled athletes and club owners ready to stuff their franchises into moving vans and head for some town where saps have sold the farm to entice the Georgia Frontieres and Al Davises of this world.

None of that happens in local college sports except, perhaps, for the occasional athlete or coach bursting with arrogance that stems from a warped sense of self-importance.

If ever there was a perfect time for people disenchanted with the disgusting state of professional sports to explore alternatives, this is it. And taking in a few college athletic events next year might be the panacea for those of you who still enjoy hard and honest competition without the peripheral garbage.

Who knows? It might be among your best New Year’s resolutions.